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Prehistory, history and reception of a historiographical myth (1880Ð1930)

Today the question “Orient oder Rom?” is no longer a topical issue in medieval art history, although a persuasive answer has never been formulated. One of the reasons for this oblivion deals with the controversial figure of Josef Strzygowski, who in 1901 published about the question his pivotal volume, nowadays discredited for its racial and proto-nazi judgement.However, the question “Orient oder Rom?” concerns not only with Josef Strzygowski: the prodromes of this critical concepts goes back to the nineteenth century, when the Russian, Austro-Hungarian and Ottoman empires fought to control territories. The conference aims to distance from the sole Strzygowski’s perspective and to comprehend and rewrite the story of a pivotal concept for both art historiography and cultural identity.